Cleaning inside of powdercoated wheels

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ej8tunerman

New member
Ive got a set of 16" Konig Heliums which are powerdercoated bronze. I always take great care of the wheels, keeping them waxed with collinite 845 and such. Everytime I wash the car I clean the insides of the wheels and doing this with my wheel mitt leaves the mitt very nasty as well as making it a pain to get behind the spokes. Are there any good brushes of some sort that will make detailing the insides of the wheels easier as well as not scratch the powdercoating?
 
Yeah, I have a scad of reserved-for-wheel-duty cleaning media.



For tough to do ones, maybe a 3-finer sponge or a MF stuck on a stick would reach in there. Or, if there's really no way to get to the back side (as with some BBS/monocoque type wheels) you can sometimes do them from the back side with the vehicle jacked up a bit. Depends on the clearance around the dust shields/calipers/etc. though...



I'll have to deal with this on the M3 when I finally get it on the road..the BBS RGRs don't give me much room to reach back in there :o
 
I have a Microfiber wheel/wheel well only mitt, scrub brush for the tires, and 3-4 reserve micofibers for the rims. I just need some sort of soft brush to get back behind the spokes when I clean the car that wont scratch the powdercoating. The wheel is just like the Volk CE28n if anything knows what those look like. 8 spoke wheel.
 
Wheel material is less critical than the car. I have a Corvette with Magnesium wheels - actually painted and clear- coated. I found the easiest way to clean them is with a cheap toilet brush. I can usually lie flat and get to most of the wheel with the brush. Wiping is a bit problematic and usually two steps - as much as possible from outside - move the car to a dry spot - lie down and wipe the insides usually requiring one additional move for hard to reach spots.



My big car I can almost stand up under - wheels are easy. Same treatment and they are polished aluminum.
 
ej8tunerman- Always make sure that the wash media isn't gonna cause marring; if I used a toilet brush on some of my wheels I'd scratch 'em something awful as the finishes on my wheels (well, not the Blazer) are just too delicate for that.



Similarly, I only use the EZ Detail brush (see if you can find it at Top of the Line Auto Detailing Supplies ) on certain wheels, but maybe it's the sort of thing you're after.



I do a lot of this work with a Quickee Sponge Mop (no link handy, but somebody found one on another thread so it might be worth a search) but it might not fit in your case and you gotta replace them frequently lest the metal core wear through and do some awful damage.



I guess I'd get back to the idea of affixing something to a long thin tool and poking that through; I have to do stuff like that to reach inaccessible areas in engine compartments and if I can reach *those* areas we oughta be able to do the same with wheels (maybe easier said than done though).
 
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